Iowa Weather Report October 23rd 2014: A Partial Eclipse of the Sun

QUICK RAIN: Rain will be moving through and out of the state today. We should see some clearing in the western counties by midday and it should make it into the eastern counties around sunset. This would mean the partial eclipse of the sun may be visible for the entire state if we can get the system out of the state in time. Highs today will be held down in the eastern counties with the amount of clouds and showers early on, likely in the upper 50s to lower 60s. The western counties could see readings well into the 60s and lower 70s. Friday through Sunday still look dry with mainly sunny skies and readings well into the 60s and 70s across the state. The GFS is showing some possible shower activity moving in by Sunday evening ahead of the next system moving in from the west. We’ll have to watch this to see if this could affect the latter half of the weekend if the system moves a bit quicker than this model run currently indicates.

INTO NEXT WEEK: The next system will be moving through Monday into the first half of Tuesday with some showers possible. At this time it doesn’t look to bring a lot of rainfall but we have plenty of time to watch to see if that changes. Temperatures will begin to drop back to near seasonal levels as we head toward the middle of next week.

ONWARD TO NOVEMBER: This GFS run shows the cold plunge of air from Canada coming on the 30th and 31st of October, a few days earlier than what we saw yesterday. With the plunge of colder air could come some precipitation which could be in the form of rain or perhaps some rain mixed with some flurries. It’s still too early to determine what will take place at this time, we’ll just keep monitoring. The colder air looks to last a few days before modifying as we head further into the first week of November. Readings looks to even go above seasonal levels toward the end of the period, but this too would have to be watched in the coming days as well. Given the lack of any trends in the last few days, confidence in this solution past seven days is close to zero.